


Blackberry Wanders

by I_am_Best



Series: Folklore Wanders [2]
Category: Wander Over Yonder
Genre: AU, Gen, folklore AU, more wanders!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-23
Updated: 2017-08-23
Packaged: 2018-12-18 10:26:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,294
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11872422
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/I_am_Best/pseuds/I_am_Best
Summary: The world can seem big and scary when you're just one spooky little Wander, but that's what friends are for.





	Blackberry Wanders

**Author's Note:**

> The blind Wander is @hamatopurity's Blindy! I gladly borrowed him for this story because he is a cutie.

In a dark, dark wood, there was a dark, dark bridge. And in that dark, dark bridge, there lived a small, spooky Wander. They liked the quiet giggling of water over slimy rocks, and the strange, dark depths of the nearby pond. Some days, they even saw graceful water mocassons gliding through the murk from one side to another.

Their bridge went from nowhere to nowhere, now, so people rarely visited, but occasionally a scruffy, sort of mangy Wander who liked to fish came by. The spooky Wander would watch him from the rushes, but never took him up on his offer to share a jug of something pungent and sharp or his blanket. Though they didn't want to, they found most everyone scary, including other Wanders, so spent their days with their mushrooms and spiders and snakes.

As it was, one morning while helping spiders string their webs with dew, the spooky Wander wandered farther and farther afield, until they were out of the gloom of their hollow and heard only birdsong and rustling leaves. Soon the trees broke on the edge of a steep incline that was covered in a curling, sprawling bramble of blackberries. They squinted into the blue morning light that glowed stronger than their own fox-fire eyes. In the distance, they could see buildings and fields dotting the mountains. So long as those stayed distant, the spooky Wander was fine.

They turned to go back into the forest and tripped over someone.

Into the briar patch, they tumbled. Into brambles and blackberries. One of them yelped. It wasn't the spooky Wander, who couldn't talk.

They came to a rolling stop in a dip in the mountainside, under a webwork of blackberry brambles. At some point, the two had become tangled up, and when the spooky Wander opened their eyes, thee lights flickering back into life, they couldn't tell whose limbs were whose. They were all orange and furry and soft.

They had tripped over another Wander!

The spooky Wander scrambled back. They wanted to run away, but this Wander could be hurt.

They sat there, torn between reaching out and helping, or just sitting and waiting for the other Wander to recover on their own. He was slowly figuring out where he was, climbing to his hands and knees at first, then pushing to just his feet. Before the other Wander could stand and stick his head right into the thorns of of the blackberries, the spooky Wander grabbed him and pulled him down again.

"Woah!" the other Wander said, losing his balance. Fortunately the spooky one was expecting it this time and caught him. He sat back, eyes staring straight ahead as though the spooky Wander wasn't there. "What's this who's grabbin' me?"

The spooky Wander wasn't sure what to make of the strange movements of this Wander, who groped forward until he found them and pulled them into a cheerful, warm hug. They sat very, very still as fingers explored their face, their hat, and eventually found their hands. The other Wander sat back and smiled almost in the spooky Wander's direction.

This Wander was blind, the spooky Wander realized.

"You're a chilly one, ain'tcha?" he asked, reaching up to touch their cheek. "Real quiet, too. Hm, are ya a lil mountain devil?" The spooky Wander shook their head. "A squonk, then? Just the cutest lil fellas." The spooky Wander smiled at that, because they often felt like a squonk, but shook their head again. "Then could ya be another Wander, like me? Hey, that rhymed! Heheh!"

The spooky Wander nodded enthusiastically. This Wander didn't seem put off by their silence, and they liked that he rhymed and petted their hands.

"A Wander, huh? I heard there was a spooky one who didn't talk, but you're much too far from your home. Why are ya knockin' folks into blackberry patches?"

The spooky Wander shrugged. They hadn't meant to, but didn't know how to convey that.

"Can you help me collect blackberries?" The other Wander said like the spooky one had explained perfectly. "I'd smelled they were in season, so wanted to make jam."

The spooky Wander looked around at the glistening black baubles hanging around their heads. They reached up and picked one, then pressed it against the other Wander's face.

He laughed and took the berry gently from the spooky Wander, then popped it into his mouth. He gave a thumbs up as he ate. "Nice 'n' ripe, though I think my hat might be a better basket than my mouth."

The spooky Wander nodded and cast about for where their hats had gotten knocked off to. They quickly retrieved them and, after a moment's confusion and a few wayward hat-spiders, got their respective hats situated.

The spooky Wander was glad to shimmy and slither through the brambles, hunting down ripe blackberries and returning them to the other Wander like some sort of berryhound. After startling him several times, they learned to shake the brambles to announce where they were, since without conscious thought, they were barely a shadow moving through the forest, and shadows weren't known for being loud. A few times, though, in the middle of fetching, they would stop and just watch the other Wander work.

He felt around more carefully than the spooky Wander, and spoke to fill the morning quiet as he plucked black berries. He told stories about the town he lived in, the humans who lived there, how he's been looking for a Sylvia, and has met a lot of great ones. The spooky Wander liked those stories the best, as their own Sylvia was only occasionally corporeal, which made them very lonely. Sensing this, he began to talk all about the Sylvias he'd met as he picked berries.

Each berry was carefully felt for firmness, sniffed, and, finally, plucked from its vine. Some that looked perfectly ripe to the spooky Wander were left hanging, and they studied a few, but couldn't figure out why the other Wander had left them. They knew very little about berries, though, because they weren't mushrooms or moss.

Soon, the other Wander's hat was full to the brim with blackberries, and they'd worked their way down to the bottom of the patch.

The other Wander reached out for the spooky one and found their face. They giggled silently as he patted them, then found a spot on their head to scratch.

"I've gotta be goin' now," he said, hefting the hat full of berries with his other hand. "Will ya be okay?"

The spooky Wander tilted their head, not sure what he meant.

"You're awful far from home, lil guy."

The spooky Wander squinted around the mountains, looking for their dark little hollow in all the morning sunlight. Everything looked unfamiliar. But they nodded. They'd figure it out.

"If ya say so," the other Wander said, before setting down his hat to pull the spooky one into a hug. They tensed, but soon relaxed into the hug. It wasn't often they got hugs, and theirs was a little weaker for it. He nuzzled their cold cheek.

When they separated, the other Wander tapped the ground thoughtfully with a foot, then pointed off into the distance. "Maybe try goin' that way," he suggested before he put his berry hat on his head and slinked to the ground like a cat. "I'll see ya later, okay?" he said, then disappeared into the forest on all fours, movements confident and almost as silent as the spooky Wander's. That explained how the spooky Wander had tripped over him.

Feeling a little overwhelmed but a lot happy at having made a friend, the spooky Wander took the other Wander's advise and began the trek back to their home.


End file.
